Hot take: That old 300-watt power supply in my closet actually fixed my intermittent PC crashes

I spent two weeks swapping RAM and drivers on a shop Dell, but swapping in a random old PSU from 2012 (yeah, a Corsair CX430) stopped the random restarts cold. Anyone else keep a junk drawer of old parts that somehow save a repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice1211mo ago

Right, but did you check if that old CX430 was putting out steady voltage on the 12V rail before you swapped it? A multimeter or even a cheap PSU tester would tell you if the original PSU was just sagging under load or if it was straight up failing. I've seen so many OEM Dells where the stock PSU is barely adequate, and they start acting weird after a couple years of dust buildup heating things up inside. That Corsair from 2012 is honestly a solid unit, those older CX series had better capacitors than the later green label ones. What was the wattage on the shop Dell's original PSU?

uma_webb281mo ago

The CX430 is a tank, mine survived a coffee spill in 2014 and still runs. Catching myself relying on a 12 year old PSU over a brand new Dell one says more about my junk drawer habits than the actual fix though. Maybe I should start testing parts before replacing them, but where's the fun in that?